Al Hajj Abdu Ali Sharqawi
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Sharqawi Abdu Ali al-Hajj (born May 26, 1974 in Taiz, Yemen), also known as Riyadh the Facilitator, is a Yemeni alleged
Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
associate who is currently being held in the United States'
Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...
s, in Cuba. Al-Hajj arrived at the Guantanamo detention camps on 20 September 2004, and has been held there for .


Transportation to Guantanamo Bay

Human Rights group Reprieve reports that flight records show two captives named
Al-Sharqawi Sharqawi Abdu Ali al-Hajj (born May 26, 1974 in Taiz, Yemen), also known as Riyadh the Facilitator, is a Yemeni alleged Al-Qaeda associate who is currently being held in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. Al-Hajj arrive ...
and
Hassan bin Attash Hassan Muhammad Salih bin Attash ( ar, حسن محمد علي بن عطاش) is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held by the United States in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate th ...
were flown from Kabul in September 2002. The two men were flown aboard N379P, a plane suspected to be part of the CIA's ghost fleet. Flight records showed that the plane originally departed from Diego Garcia, stopped in Morocco, Portugal, then Kabul before landing in Guantanamo Bay. The Guardian reports that one of the two men has been released from US custody. A differing report shows al-Hajj was arrested by the CIA in Karachi, Pakistan, in February 2002, and rendered to Jordan. He was transferred to Afghanistan in January 2004, where he was held at the CIA-run Dark Prison, then at Bagram Air Base, and then finally transferred to Guantanamo in September 2004.


Extraordinary rendition

Sharqawi Abdu Ali al-Hajj has written that after his capture, in February 2002, in Pakistan he spent two years in CIA custody in foreign interrogation centers, prior to his transfer to Guantanamo, in February 2004: He writes that he spent 19 months in Amman, Jordan, and then five months in a secret interrogation center. While in Jordan he had been handed over to the custody of Jordan's General Intelligence Department. He wrote:


Official status reviews

Originally the
Bush Bush commonly refers to: * Shrub, a small or medium woody plant Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to: People * Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name **Bush family, a prominent American family that includes: *** ...
Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the ''" war on terror"'' were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention. In 2004 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in
Rasul v. Bush ''Rasul v. Bush'', 542 U.S. 466 (2004), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held that foreign nationals held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp could petition federal courts for writs of ''habeas corpus ...
, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.


Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the
Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants The Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants, established in 2004 by the Bush administration's Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, is a United States military body responsible for organising Combatant St ...
. Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations.: * Sharqawi Abdu Ali al-Hajj was listed as one of the captives who ''"The military alleges ... are members of Al Qaeda."'' * Sharqawi Abdu Ali al-Hajj was listed as one of the captives who ''"The military alleges ... were at Tora Bora."'' * Sharqawi Abdu Ali al-Hajj was listed as one of the captives who ''"The military alleges ... served on Osama Bin Laden’s security detail."'' * Sharqawi Abdu Ali al-Hajj was listed as one of the captives who was a member of the ''"al Qaeda leadership cadre"''. * Sharqawi Abdu Ali al-Hajj was listed as one of the ''"82 detainees made no statement to CSRT or ARB tribunals or made statements that do not bear materially on the military’s allegations against them."''


Habeas Corpus

In June 2011, a federal Judge ruled that the
Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...
can not use certain statements al-Hajj gave to justify his detention because the government did not rebut claims of torture in Jordan and Afghanistan. But the same judge rejected a defense attempt to suppress an incriminating statement al-Hajj made before his claims of torture.


Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

On 25 April 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts. His 11-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on 20 July 2008. It was signed by camp commandant
Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...
David M Thomas Jr. David M. Thomas (born 1958) is a former senior officer in the United States Navy. Early life Thomas's father was a career Navy officer. Thomas, and three of his brothers, are graduates of the United States Naval Academy. All are retired, i ...
He recommended continued detention.


Joint Review Task Force

When he assumed office in January 2009, President Barack Obama made a number of promises about the future of Guantanamo. He promised to institute a new review system. That new review system was composed of officials from six departments, where the OARDEC reviews were conducted entirely by the Department of Defense. When it reported back, a year later, the Joint Review Task Force classified some individuals as too dangerous to be transferred from Guantanamo, even though there was no evidence to justify laying charges against them. On 9 April 2013, that document was made public after a
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...
request. Sharqawi Abdu Ali al-Hajj was one of the 71 individuals deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release. Al-Hajj was approved for transfer on 8 June 2021.https://www.prs.mil/Portals/60/Documents/ISN1457/SubsequentReview3/210608_UPR_ISN1457_SH2_FINAL_DETERMINATION.pdf


References


External links


Judge Rules Yemeni’s Detention at Guantánamo Based Solely on Torture
Andy Worthington
Human Rights Watch, Double Jeopardy: CIA Renditions to Jordan (2008)UN Secret Detention Report (Part Three): Proxy Detention, Other Countries’ Complicity, and Obama’s Record
Andy Worthington

8 June 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharqawi, Abdu Ali Al Haji 1974 births Living people Yemeni extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Yemeni al-Qaeda members People from Taiz People subject to extraordinary rendition by the United States Detainees of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp Saudi Arabian torture victims